Joshua 10:43

Deep down in the recesses of the human psyche we long for a better home. The broken relationships, the societal strife, our own emotional turmoil, and our estrangement from our Creator well up in our hearts a longing for home.

The Bible often captures this longing for home with the word “land”. In Joshua 10:43, it says, “Thus the LORD gave Israel all the land he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it and settled there.”

Notice the dynamic. Though Israel had to take possession of the land and settle it, ultimately the LORD gave Israel this land.

Israel could not have taken that land on her own. The former occupants of that land possessed greater strength and might than Israel. Neither could Israel say she was morally superior to those who formerly occupied it (see Deuteronomy 9:4). Israel received her long-awaited home purely as an act of God’s grace.  

We do not come home, spiritually speaking, by trying to find our own way home. We may need to enter into our home through repentance and trusting in the gracious provision God has given us in his Son, Jesus Christ, but ultimately our homecoming comes as an act of God’s grace. We can no more make a home for ourselves than the prodigal son could make a habitable home for himself by taking his father’s inheritance and going off to a far-off country. When we go off trying to make a home for ourselves, we end up like he did: homeless.

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